Saturday Saturday

It's going to be a big ticket Saturday this weekend. With two events, scheduled to take place at two different ends of the city simultaneously, both vying to outdo each other in terms of the glamour quotient. The first one, held in SoBo is The AIB Knockout of Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh (which we wrote about a month ago).

The event, which will be hosted at the NSCI, which has been put together by the funny men of All India Bakchod, (comedians and YouTube stars) will follow Comedy Central USA’s roast format and feature Karan Johar as the host and roast master. Some of the other names of roasters doing the rounds are Parineeti Chopra and fellow hack Rajeev Masand.

Hrithik Roshan and Varun Dhawan

And if that wasn’t enough for Mumbai Saturday also happens to be the final of the ISL tournament (the ultra successful IPL-style football league). The match will take place at the DY Patil stadium, and though the finalists are yet to be decided (bookies have their bets of a Goa vs Kerala final) we hear the closing ceremony is sure to be a spectacle.

Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh

And expected in attendance are a host of Bollywood stars including, Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Varun Dhawan and Ranbir Kapoor. So, if you are one of the late ones to wake up and are looking for tickets it’s a tough choice to make!

“It’s a pledge Deepika and I had taken for an empowerment initiative,” says Adajania, referring to who appears to be his favourite star, the long-limbed Deepika Padukone, the star of two of his three films.

“We wanted to shoot black & white moving portraits of 99 women from most walks of life… a flower seller, singer, writer, clerk, marine biologist, veggie vendor, actor, director…pretty much across the spectrum,” he says adding, “I wanted to film them just being, just freewheeling and expressing themselves organically to the spoken word poem.” And is Deepika in this 2-minute film?

“Deepika bookends the film and it will have her voice over of a powerful piece that’s been written by Kersi Khambatta (Co-writer of Being Cyrus, Finding Fanny) titled ‘My Choice’,” he says, adding “Maddock Films produced it and Sangita Jindal sponsored us through the generous Jindal Foundation, because women’s empowerment is something we all share a common belief in.”

And when we questioned why the filmmaker chose exactly 99 and not a hundred women, he laughed, “Because at the last minute God dropped out... I guess she was busy!” Nice!

Enchanted valley festivalThis weekend, the city’s young and restless will head over to neighbouring Aamby Valley to attend the Enchanted Valley Carnival aka EVC.

DJ David Guetta

The music fest (slated to be held on a deserted air-strip!) now in its second year, seems to have sent out the right vibes with its chilled out reputation. Die-hard EDM lovers speak of how the festival is India’s equivalent of Coachella (held outside LA every year) with the same camping style set up.

Those who attend have the choice of BYOT (bring your own tent) or can stay at villas and chalets in the vicinity. The music line up is headlined by French sensation and ex no-1 DJ David Guetta and has a decent mix of Indian artists like Anish Sood, Rishabh Joshi and Dualist Inquiry, along with other international musicians.

What’s more, insiders are already talking about the festival’s after party, which will see the DJ group Usual Suspects (Karan Third Eye, Vishal Shetty, Siddhant Kapoor- actress Shraddha’s brother) on the decks. Of course, Aamby Valley’s creator, the one and only Subrata Roy alas will be unable to attend the high jinks though, given as he is currently listening to his own version of the Jail House Rock.

Spotlight on The Eccentrics“It’s from the December issue of Elle, for an article titled ‘The Eccentrics’,” says our friend, India’s leading set and lighting designer, the Delhi-based Sumant Jayakrishnan about a striking portrait that we chanced upon recently. “It was put together as a concept by Ashdeen Lilaowala a textile and fashion designer based out of Delhi. I am wearing my own things stuff I had gotten made for my 40th birthday.

The hat I picked up on a trip to South Africa, the clothes were bright celebratory and very Aladdin some of them were inspired in cut from costumes I had designed for the Tim Supple production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’,” says the NID alumnus, who is also responsible for designing some of the most fabulous destination weddings, besides art direction for movies like Deepa Mehta’s Water.

Incidentally Jayakrishnan is not the only flamboyantly stylish person featured in the article: dancer Astad Deboo, artists Jiten Thukral and Samir Tagra and Mumbai’s very own perennial flower power couple, gallerist Praveena and finance wiz Jamal Mecklai make the cut too.

Classy biopicIt’s not been announced yet, but sources swear that a leading and very handsome Bollywood star is currently in talks to produce and star in a biopic based on the life of one of India’s greatest industrialists, a man as dynamic and visionary as he was elegant and someone on whose life nothing has been done so far on celluloid.

What’s more, the film is being supported by none other than one of the industrialist’s relatives, a man richly deserving of his own biopic, we think. When will the film be announced? Pretty soon, if sources are to be believed. And given the star’s trajectory (he’s produced some critically acclaimed films in the past) it promises to be a very classy affair.